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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Human Nature

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 30 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by: Charlie Kaufman
Directed by: Michel Gondry
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 12, 2002
DVD: December 10, 2002
Running Time: 96 minutes, Color
Origin: France / USA
Summary
RATING: R for sexuality/nudity and language
Starring Tim Robbins, Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans, Miranda Otto, Robert Forster, Mary Kay Place, Miguel Sandoval, and Toby Huss
A philosophical burlesque, Human Nature follows the ups and downs of an obsessive scientist, a female naturalist, and the man they discover, born and raised in the wild. (Fine Line Features)
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Both deeply weird and charmingly dear.
Newsweek Devin Gordon
Kaufman's new script isn't as inspired as "Malkovich." It's a precious little concoction -- the B-plus work of a madcap genius.
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A hoot, or at least a collection of delightful hootlets hung on a short, frayed line.
Slate David Edelstein
The characters are much less finely tuned and the climax is a botch, but the French-financed film is often a riot, and the sensibility is all there.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Fresh and often very funny, and it makes its point that when our native urges conflict with social norms, the former shall give in to the latter, or else.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The movie has nowhere much to go and nothing much to prove, except that Stephen King is correct and if you can devise the right characters and the right situation, the plot will take care of itself -- or not, as the case may be.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The result is a satisfying and original picture.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Nature lacks a little of Malkovich's freshness, but that's just about all it lacks.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf
You'll laugh a lot, but not without a sense of animal desperation.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Human Nature's zigzag ingenuity wears out some time before the farce bounces slowly to an uneven conclusion. For all its highfalutin title and corkscrew narrative, the movie turns out to be not much more than a shaggy human tale.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Renee Graham
It's just weirdness for the sake of weirdness, and where ''Human Nature'' should be ingratiating, it's just grating.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
In truth, I didn't care much for it, while respecting it a great deal. It's self-consciously childish and "innocent," and everything is overdrawn to cartoon dimension.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Ron Wells
What was needed was either a Stanley Kubrick, or, well, the Farrelly Brothers. Instead we get warmed over Spike Jonze. Still, a little watered down Spike Jonze has to be entertaining some of the time, so this isn't a total loss.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
The second movie by "Being John Malkovich" writer Charlie Kaufman is even weirder than his first.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The movie is too cute to take itself too seriously, but it still feels like it was made by some very stoned college students.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
After some promising leaps, bounds and swings through a fascinating jungle of possibility, Charlie Kaufman's movie misses an all-important creeper.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The best stuff in Human Nature comes early, while the movie is still spry and daring --Then the film runs out of ideas, repetition sets in and so does boredom.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Feels forced and awkward, as though it's trying too hard to be weird, culty and profound.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Every single frame of this film is as cute, slick, and snappy as the adorable little mice who end the movie with a gag right out of "Babe: Pig in the City."
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The movie never gets off the ground. Kaufman's script is never especially clever and often is rather pretentious.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Tries for both civilized wit and primitive joy -- and mostly misses both.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Charlie Kaufman's clever screenplay bears many traces of the same brand of originality and eccentric imagination that graced his work on "Being John Malkovich," although even at an hour-and-a-half the conceit is stretched almost too thin for audience sustenance.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
An overemphatic, would-be wacky, ultimately tedious sex farce.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Characters remain stuck in their cliche profiles, and the direction -- by music video specialist Michel Gondry -- doesn't improve matters.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly John Powers
Although a few moments are hilarious, this would-be romp remains laboriously earthbound when it should be swinging gaily through the trees.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times John Anderson
A goofball movie, in the way "Malkovich" was, but it tries too hard.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
